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“I dunno, I’ve been meeting everyone else, haven’t I?” Jasper stopped facing Miss Lavender and spun around to face Jekyll. “I wouldn’t mind seeing one more, if we have time for it?”
Jekyll smiled and turned his face towards the ground, shaking it slightly. “I’m not sure Hyde will even be around the Society, much less wanting to see visitors at the present. But I can show you to Mr. Griffin’s room perhaps? He’s a Disapparative Biochemist, and-”
“But surely he’s still in your office? I mean, I didn’t see him leave through the front door, and none of Miss. Flowers’ bugs I stationed near the windows have had any reports of anyone leaving through the windows - Highly unusual, but you can’t argue with data.” Miss. Lavender interjected, making Jekyll seem… Flustered? Jasper didn’t think he would get so worked up about the whereabouts of his assistant, but, hey, you learn something new everyday. At least, he thought, that’s one person who would look for him if the angry mob came back.
“Ah, yes, well… Maybe he went through the roof, or the ventilation system? He does seem to be able to squeeze himself into the strangest of places sometimes. Speaking of strange things, why on earth are you monitoring our use of the exits to the Society? I can’t imagine how this would benefit your research, Miss. Lavender, although do feel free to enlighten me if I’m wrong.” Yeah, Jekyll was certainly flustered. But why, though?
“Oh, you see, a creature of mine and Mrs. Cantilupe’s got away, and we were checking to make sure it hadn’t escaped from inside the Society’s walls.” Seeing the wary look on the Doctor’s face, she quickly followed with, “But don’t worry, Mrs. Cantilupe’s got it all under control, and I’ll be removing the bugs from the windows.”
With a sigh of relief, Jekyll thanked her in response, before turning back to Jasper, who was currently messing about with a seemingly floating chair. “Thank you, Miss. Lavender. Jasper?” The man in question whipped his head around to Jekyll, acting like a child who had just been caught with his hand in the biscuit tin. “Shall we get going?”
Right. They were going to see the rest of the Lodgers, and someone else. Hide, was his name? “Yes, thank you Mr. Maijabi, Miss. Lavender, and Mrs. Cantilupe. Are we going to see Hide?” Was he forgetting someone?
At the mention of the name, the ever calm and peaceful Doctor tensed up, and clearly was trying not to let anyone see his strained smile, although Jasper, not being used to the twenty million different smiles he would pull daily, saw right through it, and assumed that Jekyll really didn’t want him seeing his assistant, for some reason.
Ah well, he wasn’t going to push it.
But someone else certainly would. “Not lettin’ ‘im see ‘ThE sPiRiT oF lOnDoN aT nIgHt’, are we Doctor? Why’re ya so cagey? Usually you barely talk about Edward, le’alone stop someone from seein’ the man. What’s the ma’a with you tonight?” Mr. Helsby! That’s who Jasper was forgetting to say goodbye to earlier!
“I- Er- Nothing! I just don’t think Hyde would want to receive any guests now, not so early in the morning-”
“It’s twenty-past-one in the afternoon.” Mrs. Cantilupe quietly offered, no-one hearing her but Jasper and Jekyll.
“Thank you, Mrs. Cantilupe, as I was saying, Hyde most likely won’t want to see anyone until after nightfall, lest the sun ‘burn his eyes’, or whatever nonsense he was rambling on about last time he went out during the day. So, we should really be heading to Mr. Griffi-”
“But Mr. Griffin lent him a pair of sunnies a couple of weeks ago, and Mr. Hyde wears them religiously, so he can see clearly in the day. Did he not tell you, Dr. Jekyll?” Dr. Maijabi cut in, not letting Jekyll get away with his terrible lie any longer.
“I… Yes, I suppose I’d forgotten about that. But… Yes! He might still have an awful headache, no doubt from whatever he was doing last night when I was tucked away in my office doing paperwork. I’m sure the overstimulation from introducing a new lodger would have a devastating effect on his possible migraine, and it really isn’t best to bother-”
“Yeaaaah, normally tha’d be the case, but i’ jus’ so happened tha’ we were havin’ a bakin’ competition las’ nigh’ - All o’ us, Eddie included - and none o’ us actually touched a bo’le o’ alcohol, so unless ya can ge’ hungover from excessively stuffin’ yaself wi’ non-alcoholic cookies, or from flour being repetitively thrown inta ya face, I don’ think he’s hungover, for once in his Goddamned life. Any other ideas we can shoo’ down?” Mr. Helsby interrupted, a wide, cocky grin plastered across his beaming face. Jasper decided that he quite liked Mr. Helsby, but he was getting a bit annoying.
“No, I…” Jekyll sighed dejectedly, his gaze falling to the floor. “I suppose you’re right - He must be in my office, perfectly fine to receive visitors on this beautiful afternoon after a night of no drinking.” He pivoted on his heels and walked to the door, propping it open with his foot. “Shall you and I go pay him a visit, Jasper? The rest of you will almost certainly see him tonight, at some ridiculous hour, so you can spare the man from overcrowding. Come along now, Jasper.”
He quickly followed the smiling Doctor out the door, not wanting the Lodgers to push him further.
—— Time skip ‘cause walks with no dialogue are boring ——
“Well, here we are. Are you certain you don’t want to turn back? He can be quite aggressive at times.” Jekyll said, leaning in the doorframe to what Jasper supposed was his office. Was he trying to stop him from looking in? How weird.
Jasper shook his head. After all the strange remarks from the few Lodgers in Dr. Maijabi’s room, he was really eager to see ‘The Spirit of London at Night’, or whatever Mr. Helsby had called him. He sounded like some of the wild bulls Jasper had had to deal with back at his family’s farm - Reckless and stupid, but intent on destroying as much stuff as possible whilst having fun.
Jekyll took a deep breath in, and put a determined smile on his face. “If you insist. Please just wait outside for a moment, I’ll ask if he’ll be accepting visitors right now.”
And with that, he turned and walked into the room, the door shutting behind him with a satisfying click.
All he had to do now was wait.
After a couple of minutes had passed, Jasper could’ve sworn he’d heard some kind of muffled screaming coming from the room that Jekyll had locked himself inside of, but he couldn’t be sure. After all, it could just be the whistle of a kettle, or the wind getting caught inside of a half-open window. There was probably nothing nefarious to worry about.
…
Although, it was raining, so no windows would be open, and it was the height of summer, so making tea would be a rather pointless activity [Le gasp!!] as it would be too hot outside to even think of drinking a warm beverage now [Never underestimate the British, Jasper!]. How odd.
His thoughts were quickly interrupted by the sound of the door unbolting, revealing-
“Doctor Jekyll?”
The man paused at the mention of the name, raising an eyebrow. “Who’re ya calling Dr. Jekyll? I’m a completely different person, mate.”
As the ‘new’ man stepped out of the doorway, Jasper could see that, although at first glance, he seemed to be a different person, it was clearly just the Doctor pulling some kind of prank on him.
“No - You’ve only lost a couple of inches, put on a wig and some contacts, are talking in a cockney accent, and have put a pair of tinted glasses on. Are you pulling my leg, Dr. Jekyll?” As Jasper pointed out the very few different changes in the man, he seemed to become more and more agitated.
“I’m not Dr. Jekyll! I’m Hyde, Edward Hyde, his assistant. We literally couldn’t be further from each other!”
“Are you… Sure? You just look - Well, apart from the eyes and hair, of course - kinda the same. Are you two related in some way?” Jasper could tell when people were lying pretty well thanks to his heightened senses as a werewolf, and they were going off like there was no tomorrow.
‘Hyde’ looked ready to burst with anger, but he kept his cool. “I am in no way related to or like Jekyll at all. Now, since that’s out the way, I’ll be continuing my tour of the Society, because Jekyll is busy cleaning up the mess I was making in his office before I was so rudely interrupted by you two. Shall we go see the kitchens? I heard Rachel’s making samples of the food for the exhibition - We might get to pinch some!”
“My tour?”
“Shit.”